Going the Fanon Route
by anshtH
Summary: What would happen if Naruto graduated on the first attempt? Became Chunin in his first attempt? And as a consequence never met with the canon characters? What would happen if Naruto was not a prankster? What would happen if Naruto was not Naruto, but a self insert hell bent on destroying the plot? SI!Naruto fic. Ratings might change
1. Chapter 1

I was nervous. This was going to be my first attempt at graduation. So far, things were good, or at least as good as it could be with the amount of glares and stares directed my way. There were even few attempts at sabotaging my education but a quick help from _others_ and checking out stuff from the library were enough to correct those mistakes.

The written portion of the exam seemed ridiculously easy. I knew that there was no genjutsu on the paper, my friend in the gut had ensured that, but still it seemed way too easy for someone about to go on a path to kill people. In any case, I breezed through it. The physical portion of the exams was good enough. I knew that I had not done well enough to be the rookie of the year, but I knew that I would at least not fail.

Finally I reached the bane of my life, the ninjutsu portion of the test, or what I fondly refer as the ninja magic.

"Uzumaki san, please tranform into the Hokage."

With a nod I transformed into the second Hokage. No one really specified which Hokage I had to transform into and I had a feeling that it didn't really matter as long as it was a believable transformation.

The proctors just nodded and noted down something.

"The Body Replacement Technique..."

I substituted myself with one of the logs that was present in the class. Once they noticed it, I replaced myself back. And finally...

"Make at least two clones."

This was it, the do or die situation. With a hand seal there were now about thirty clones in the class. The proctor raised his eyes at this.

"You didn't have to make so many clones, Uzumaki san."

"Aah... I apologize for this sensei. But this is the least number that I can make without any problems."

"Is that so..."

I just nodded. He made a note of something.

"Well Uzumaki san. You pass the academy graduation test. You have a week to get yourself registered. There will be team placements next week, please be here on time."

With that I took the forehead protector that was offered to me and I walked out of the classroom, knowing fully that I had already messed up the canon.


	2. Chapter 2

A week had passed and no amount of begging could persuade the Old man to tell me about my team assignments. I had to wait for it, like others. I knew that the traditional Rookie of the year paired with dead last was out of question. I was comfortably an average student. Who knew that studying actually took so much of effort! I blame it all on my greater than normal chakra reserves.

Once all the students reached the academy our instructor, Hyuuga Hikaru, gave a nice speech about us being rookies, will of fire and some others things which I tuned out.

"Today we will be creating three man teams and each team will have a Jounin sensei, you will then be assigned duties by the village."

"... Team five - Uzumaki Naruto, Mizumi Akira, Inuzuka Tsuba."

-After the team announcements-

"This afternoon we will be introducing your Jounin senseis. See you after lunch."

Before I could run off for lunch, Tsuba waved at Akira and I to join him for lunch.

"You don't mind if we go to Ichiraku's?", my ramen addiction reared its ugly head. Yet another thing that was in line with canon.

"Sure, no problem." With that the three of us headed for lunch. I looked at my teammates. Tsuba looked like a typical Inuzuka, swept-back dark brown hair, the fang markings on his cheeks and black eyes. He was quite tall, but then when compared to me everyone was taller. Akira had short and spiky black hair and dark blue eyes and a blue crescent shaped mark on his forehead between his eyes.

On reaching the restaurant I ordered Miso ramen with extra pork. As usual.

"I missed you so much, my dear ramen." I sighed in satisfaction as I felt the first bite of ramen hit my taste buds. Seriously, it had been way too long.

"Hey, how old are you anyway?" Tsuba asked me. "You look seven or something."

I scowled at him, "I am nine."

"Still in single digits." He teased.

"And here I thought our team will be based on mutual respect and maturity." I sighed, I had hoped my future teammates would not remark on my age, but alas, my prayers were unanswered in that regard.

"You wish brat!" I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Hey, why don't we have female shinobi in our team, don't they usually put two guys and a girl in a team." I asked them.

"I am hurt Uzumaki san. Don't you like me as your teammate?" Akira asked with a mock offended voice.

Tsuba patted his head, "Don't worry Akira, I am here for you."

My team mates were crazy. Once they were done Akira turned to me, "Were you sleeping before the team announcements?"

I laughed sheepishly.

"One reason could be because there were not too many girls who graduated this time. And the one who did graduate might not have been a good fit for our team."

After that we talked for while about ourselves. Akira told about the Mizumi clan, a clan that I didn't know existed. Apparently, his ancestors had moved in from Land of Water after the First Shinobi War. It was a small clan with about fifteen to twenty people. They were good with genjutsu and had their own taijutsu style. Tsuba then talked about his dog Shiromaru, who was with a vet because he injured himself.

I was happy with my team. It was not an impending disaster that was team seven. It also helped that I like the number five, better than number seven. It sounded silly, but I didn't really care.

...

...

...

After lunch we headed back to the academy where our Jounin instructor was announced.

"Team five, your Jounin sensei is Mashido Hiro."

Mashido Hiro was a tall lean man, with brown eyes and dark brown hair which were arranged in spikes. He wore the standard Konoha flak jacket and a black trench coat over that. I could see two swords strapped to his back.

He led us to an empty class room and just stared at us.

"I am Mashido Hiro. I hope you know that there will be another test before I take you in my team?" we nodded, "In that case be at training ground five by 8 a.m." and he left.

He dragged us all the way to other end of the academy, just to inform about the test. I had a feeling that we were in for a world of pain. *sigh* At least he was not as bad as Gai.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Thank you everyone for the reviews, follows and favorites! Here's the next installment of Going the Fanon Route. I hope you like it!

AN: Edit: July 24, 2016. After reviewing certain comments I realized that Naruto learning Hirashin would be, well, not so nice. So I have made some changes to this particular chapter. Thanks!

"I am home!"

I called out to the clones that were religiously working at home. About three of them were working on seals, one was cleaning up the apartment, one was cooking and two of them were reading books. The wonders of Shadow Clones!

"How was it? Who are our teammates? Who is our Jounin sensei?" one of the clones asked.

"Wow! Aren't you guys hyper? We got an Inuzuka and a Mizumi on our team and some Hiro Mashido as our sensei."

"Who is he?"

"Eh… No clue. I will ask the Old Man later." I made few more clones to find information about my new sensei. Once they left I sat down on the couch and started eating the things that clone made.

"So, how is the work with seals coming along?"

"It's good. I think. But we have a long way to go, to apply seals using just chakra. I am trying to modify these explosive tags, it seems sort of easy but I will have to check the books. And now that we have graduated from the academy we can access more books from the library."

"Okay, do you need more explosive notes from the weapon store?"

"Nah."

After the clones dispersed I made them again so that they could continue their work. Then I got down to do one of the most difficult task – talking to the Nine Tailed Fox. I hadn't even found the legendary sewer yet. If it weren't for the fact that I had seen that red chakra once I would have probably thought that it never existed in the first place.

 _Flashback:_

 _Rage. It was the only emotion I could feel when I heard them talking. It was not the first time it happened. I heard the whispers when I was close, I could hear them telling their children that I was a monster, glaring at me with those cold eyes, not helping me when I fell down. They never hurt me physically. I never understood why was it happening, why didn't I get any parents, why no one wanted to adopt me. I didn't understand why they hated me. I ignored it, but finally the dam burst and I was enraged after something happened._

 _I saw red, literally. A red energy was enveloping my hands and it burned and I wanted to burn the whole place down. I wanted to destroy everyone who looked at me like that. I just hated everything and I wanted to give in to the hatred, but along with my hatred and anger there was another thing that was released – memories._

 _It was too much, I ran. I could not take the information overload. I ran so that I could get away from people. My head hurt from so much of information forcing its way in. I was confused and overwhelmed. I cried. I didn't know what to do and I had no idea what was I supposed to say and to whom, I had no one. So I cried._

 _And then someone hugged me. I don't really remember who was it, but I held on to them and wailed and then passed out._

 _When I got up I was in my own apartment, all alone. But I knew that there was someone in the damned village who liked me enough to give me a hug when I needed it the most._

 _That was the first time I had seen the evidence of existence of the Fox and the first time I had seen an evidence that I had someone precious to me even if I didn't know who they were._

 _End Flashback!_

And that was the day I realized how Kurama's chakra worked. I never really thought that those emotions would feel like they were my own. For some reason I thought that I would know when Kurama was influencing me, but the hatred was already there in me. I guess if I had buried it or I had not received any memories of my past life on that day, my hatred would have given birth to the Dark Naruto. And who knows what would have happened if there was a Dark Naruto with the memories, I might have become the second coming of black Zetsu or Kaguya.

I really needed to talk to Kurama and discuss about the plans for future. I needed someone big on my side. As it is I had messed up the timeline, I had no idea what would happen to Mizuki or to Sasuke or Gaara or Neji for that matter. Moreover, I didn't even have Kakashi on my team. I needed better plans or everything would probably end up worse than canon now. I was going in blind.

I realized that I wasn't getting any work done so I headed to the Hokage's office, to get more information on my prospective sensei and may be conning the Old Man to part with few of Dad's notes. Though, that would mean letting him know that I knew a lot about Sealing Techniques.

I ran inside his office once I reached the Hokage Tower.

~~Inside the Hokage's Office~~

The Third Hokage was having a great time reading his pupil's next installment of Icha Icha, when someone barged inside his office. There were only two people who would dare to do so.

"Hey Old Man! Guess what I got my team assignments."

He smiled as he realized that it was Naruto. The boy always managed to put a smile on his face.

"Naruto. How many times have I told you not to barge into my office?"

"Uh... I think this is the 44th time?" Naruto replied cheekily.

Hiruzen shook his head, "So what brings you here so early? I don't think it is time for dinner yet."

"I wanted to know more about my sensei. We have a test tomorrow and I wanted to get information about him, you know. For tomorrow's test. Plus, I wanted to know why did you put him in charge of my team. Also, does he know about the seal in my gut?"

"Slow down Naruto. Yes he knows about you being a jinchuuriki. I put him as your team leader because he is good with seals and with certain other things that would help your teammates. You can find more information about him from the TI"

"TI?! He's from there!"

"Yes."

"Oh... okay then jiji, I gotta go and practice for tomorrow's test. See you later!"

With that Naruto created a few clones and then rushed out of the office.


	4. Chapter 4

_AN: So, I finally figured out that there is an option to update or replace an existing chapter instead of deleting it and adding a new chapter. I am sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for sticking with the fic so far. Here is the next installment of Going the Fanon Route._

 _AN: Made changes to the skill lists of the three genins._

 **Chapter 4: The Bell Test...**

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

 **Or not.**

I reached the training ground at about 7 a.m. to get a feel of it. According to the map that I borrowed from library there was a lake somewhere in the middle of the grounds, a small clearing close to it and the rest was covered with trees. The training ground itself was close to the gates on the eastern side of the village.

I created a few clones to explore the grounds and headed towards the clearing only to find that Akira, Tsuba and Shiromaru were already there.

"Yo!"

"Hey brat. / Morning Naruto." Tsuba and Akira greeted.

"I'm not a brat." I huffed. "Why are you guys here so early?"

"We just reached here actually. We were discussing our plan of action for the test." Akira explained.

"Oh. Uh… did you get any information about Mashido sensei?"

"Yeah, but not much. We know that he has a girlfriend who is probably in ANBU, he is good with swords and apparently he hangs out a lot at Amaguriama. And yeah, he was with Konoha's Torture and Investigation Force." Tsuba answered.

"Hmmm… I didn't know that he left TI, but from what I found out, he is good with those short swords things that he has. Also, he is good with seals." I added.

Akira sighed, "While that is good, it still doesn't explain what is our test going to be. This is the first time Mashido-san has taken a genin team or rather will probably take a genin team. Also there is this small fact that he completely been working with TI Force so the regular Jounins don't know much about him other than few basic things."

So a person who is completely new to teaching gets my team. Also, he is apparently not too high up in whatever hierarchy exists over here for many people to know him. You know, as my life is progressing I can't help but wonder if there is a hidden agenda that the higher-ups have.

What am I thinking? Of course there is a hidden agenda. And of course I will be derailing those plans. My train of thoughts are interrupted when I realize that my teammates have been waiting for an answer.

"Uh… sorry I was thinking about the possible test."

"Tche… brat. Pay attention when grown-ups are talking." Tsuba ruffled my hair. Before I could retort he continued, "Since we have no clue what to expect from our teacher, we should know our strength and weaknesses. We were waiting for you to start, but since you were off somewhere, let me start. I can do the standard academy three techniques. Other than that I have started learning Gatsuga, but I don't think I can use it in fight. Although, I am really good at taijutsu. "

That… seemed like a lot to me.

Akira nodded and listed his what he could do. "I too know the standard techniques taught in academy. Other than that I know few D ranked genjutsus and I can do basic water manipulation and few water based techniques. I am alright with taijutsu, I guess. But I am quite good at planning and strategy."

Ah… Well, I guess I was the only one without a clan's fighting technique.

"Well, I can do the academy three. I am good with Shadow Clone Technique, and I know one wind release ninjutsu technique. And I have a decent knowledge of seals, they help me a lot with traps and stuff. That's it, I guess. "

"I guess that's good. Although we'll probably have to wait for the test to start to decide a plan. Though there might be a good portion of the test where we'll have to showcase our teamwork, you know, the whole concept of Will of Fire and what not."

We talk for about thirty minutes, they ask me how I know about the Shadow Clone technique as it is a B ranked technique, once I clear that up we discuss certain strategies for the possible test and then we talk about ourselves. At about 7.50 we hear some alarm go off from an official looking building that was close to the training ground.

"What's happening?" Akira asks.

Shiro barks something to Tsuba, "Yes, we should go and check it out."

"I'll send my clones to investigate. We just have about ten minutes for the test to start."

Reluctantly, Tsuba agrees.

"It appears as though someone has escaped with some scroll. The building near the training ground is the TI Force's HQ and apparently a couple of people who were being interrogated have escaped. Lot of shinobis are chasing them. You think we should join them?" I ask my teammates.

"Yes!" Tsuba yells.

"I don't think so." Akira disagrees.

"What do you mean?! Someone has escaped with a scroll; it might be important."

"I agree that it might be important, but firstly, whoever has escaped is already being chased by many of our shinobis. Secondly, we are not even Genins yet, our efforts to capture the escapees will either be minimal or it would obstruct the ones who are already chasing them. Lastly, we have a test in about five to ten minutes, we might fail it in case we are not present here when that happens."

While Akira rants about why we should not aid the efforts to capture the escapees, my clones give me a bad news… a very bad news.

"Uh… guys… one of those escapees is heading towards this training ground."


	5. Chapter 5 - Not a Bell Test

Chapter 5 v2.0

 **AN Sep 21 - This is not an update or an edit. I was wondering if I should rewrite this fic and I have put a poll on my profile. Please vote and let me know your decision. The poll will be open till Oct 5. Thanks!**

 **AN: Yo! Thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites. My apologies for slow updates. Thanks for following the story.**

 **Recap - Naruto is a self-insert. He passed the Academy graduation at 9 and is put in Team 5 with Akira and Tsuba. They are currently taking their genin test when some convicts escape from the TI HQ. One of the convicts is heading to the training field 5, where team 5 is discussing possible ways to complete their genin test successfully.**

 **AN 2 - This is more like a warning. I suck at writing fight scenes. Please don't expect any big fights... *goes and cries in a corner***

 **AN: Edited the grammar errors out and made small changes depending on the change of info in Chapter 4.**

* * *

This sounded more like a hidden test than some prisoner actually escaping the TI headquarters. In any case, we had to capture the escapee (convict?). Akira took over.

"We don't know if it is a test or not. In any case, we should not treat it like one."

We nodded our affirmation.

Akira whipped out a map of the forest.

"Naruto, do you have any idea where he is right now?"

I showed him the place on the map.

"This training ground is closer to the gates on the eastern side. Our task is to delay him till someone comes and captures him. We may be able to subdue him, but let us prepare for the worst case."

"So what's the plan?" I asked my team.

"Traps?" Tsuba suggested.

"Hmmm… Alright, we can do this. Out of three of us, I am good with genjutsu, but I don't know how long that will hold. Till then, Naruto and you will set the traps in such a way that they lead the convict back to the TI HQ. In case this plan does not work, Naruto you will overwhelm him with clones and Tsuba and I will attack at regular intervals to incapacitate him. Our goal is to capture and not kill. Are you guys okay with the plan?"

We couldn't really think of anything better at that moment, so we went ahead with it.

The genjutsu didn't really work much on our opponent. He was able to dispel it in a few seconds. I quickly made about a dozen clones to fight the convict. He didn't seem too good at taijutsu, thankfully.

"Naruto, Tsuba, he must be good at genjutsu, don't give him time to weave any hand seals. Just keep tackling him."

I kept spamming clones to make sure he was busy. Tsuba and Shiro butted in between a couple of times to get a few good hits between the clones. Finding an opening, Tsuba knocked him out with a blow to the head.

"Is he dead?" I ask.

"Just unconscious. We should let the higher-ups know about this." Tsuba replied.

"You don't have to." A voice suddenly startled us. It was Mashido sensei.

"The ANBU will take care of it." He continued.

A couple of ANBUs disappeared with the guy.

"Sensei, was he really an escapee from the prison? I thought it was supposed to be the Genin test." Tsuba asked.

Sensei sighed. "You were supposed to have a test, but I got delayed because of an emergency at the HQ. I am glad you were able to work together to capture him. Though, you should be glad. If it weren't for him, you might have to face my test or a tougher opponent – the other guy who escaped was a Jounin."

I sent a silent prayer to the Gods who were keeping me safe (must have been the awesome Uzumaki luck of the fanfictions).

"In any case, the three of you did a good work, for rookies. Congrats, you are now officially a part of team 5."

"Yes!" I finally became a genin at nine. And it was my first attempt too. Hah! I am an early graduate. Now only if everything else goes well. Sensei sat down on one of the tree stumps (I am sure it wasn't there before) and asked us to gather around.

"Before I dismiss you guys, why don't you introduce yourselves. I am Mashido Hiro, a Jounin of Konohagakure. I work at TI. I am good with seals, weapons, and taijutsu. My likes include oranges, reading and my girlfriend Tatsuki. I don't like many things. I don't want to discuss my dreams with you, though my goal is to make sure that you guys become a strong team." He then indicated Tsuba to go ahead with his intro.

"I am Inuzuka Tsuba and this is my partner Shiromaru. I like my cousin Hana and playing with Shiro. I am good at taijutsu and some clan techniques, I wouldn't mind learning how to use swords. I don't like strong perfumes and assholes. I want to join ANBU and protect Konoha."

"ANBU? Sounds like a good dream. What about you, Akira, was it?" Sensei asked.

"Yep. I am Mizumi Akira. I like Pocky, my little brother Ren and a few other things. I am good at water manipulation and Genjutsu. I would like to learn archery. I want to join ANBU as well."

"Hmmm… good." He answered with a warm smile. He then turned to me and all of a sudden his eyes turned cold. Ooookay... that was unexpected.

"You next Uzumaki."

"Yosh! I am Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, seals, training, reading, jiji, Teuchi jisan and Ayame neechan. I like working on seals and shadow clones. I want to learn how to use a Bo staff though. It seems really cool. I don't like judgmental assholes who form an opinion on people without knowing them." I looked at my sensei while saying this and to my satisfaction, he looked away.

"And my dream… is to become the Hokage who surpasses all the other Hokages." I say it with the conviction of canon Uzumaki Naruto. Actually, I don't have a dream other than messing up the plot, but the canon dream sounds good enough for now.

"A good dream Uzumaki. Well, you all can leave now. We will meet here again tomorrow at 8 a.m. Uzumaki, stay back."

Once Akira, Tsuba, and Shiro leave I turn to sensei, hoping for the worst.

"Is something wrong sensei?"

"I have a question for you, where did you learn the Shadow Clone Technique? It is a B-rank ninjutsu, which is definitely not taught to academy students."

"Hehe… that…" I rub the back of my head nervously and think of the day I had finally learned The technique that Naruto was famous for.

 _Flashback_

 _It had been a month since he got the memories of his previous life – which unfortunately was not that of Senju Hashirama or Otsutsuki Asura or even Otsutsuki Hagoromo or anyone else from the ninja world. It was that of a grad student who had died in a plane crash. In any case, I was glad that I did get those memories, I finally understood why I could not do the clone technique. But now there was a new problem, how do I get my hands on the Shadow Clone Technique._

 _As much I would have loved to say that fate provided me with an answer, I couldn't. I went running across the village whenever I could and spied on all the ninjas I could see and after months of stalking, I finally found the answers to prayers when I found some unknown ninja, probably an Uchiha by his looks, performing the Shadow Clone Technique._

 _Now that I had my source I freely practiced._

 _Of course, Hokage jiji got to know about it in a few days._

 _"Naruto, do you want to tell me something?"_

 _"Huh? What?"_

 _"It appears that you have learned a new technique."_

 _"Oh! You mean the Hokage bunshin? Yes, Old man, believe it! I have learned that technique!"_

 _"Hokage Bunshin?"_

 _I nodded enthusiastically to show off my new found knowledge (or at least pretend to do so)._

 _"Yep! Why didn't you tell me that there was a Kage version of bunshin? It is way easier than what they teach at the academy. This proves it, I am the future Hokage of Konoha."_

 _Jiji sighed in frustration, "Naruto… where did you learn this technique?"_

 _"I saw some guy doing clone technique and saw that he used different hand seals. When I tried doing bunshin with that I could get it."_

 _Jiji seemed to think over this._

 _"It appears that your chakra control is not too good, due to greater chakra reserves. I will let you off this time, but in turn, I want you to promise me that you will never use a technique for which you have not received instructions from your instructors. Promise me now."_

 _Reluctantly I promised him and returned home after getting a few scrolls for chakra control._

 _End of Flashback._

"I sort of got them accidentally. Jiji… uh… Hokage sama knows about it."

"I see… try not to use so many of them. And, you are learning about sealing, right?" he continued.

"uh… yes."

"I want you to show me the design for any new seals that you make before you experiment with it."

I nod.

"And if you want to talk to me about anything you can come to me."

Well, that was unexpected, his earlier reaction did not seem too welcoming. He must have understood what I was thinking as he apologized immediately.

"I am sorry about earlier. You need not worry about my behavior though. If at any time you think I am being unfair I want you to let me know or if you don't trust me, let Hokage sama know about it."

That was surprising... and weird. Totally weird.

I nod.

"Go rest now, you probably will not get much of a free time from tomorrow."

With a nod, I rush out of the field, though before going I turn to sensei. "Thank you, Hiro sensei!"

And with that, I rush home.

* * *

AN 3 - Reviews, follows and favorites are highly appreciated, though reviews are the best.


	6. Chapter 6 - Training and First C rank

**AN** : So the poll is closed and there were just two votes. So I instead of rewriting the story, I am just going to focus on making this one better.

So here is the sixth chapter of Going the Fanon Route. I hope you all like it. Please review. As much as I like it when people follow the story, reviews sort of inspire me to write more.

And one more thing, is anyone interested in beta-ing the story. I have this story and another one, which is sitting in my PC. It is also an SI, although it is a male SI OC. I would like it if someone could offer their views on the story before I publish it.

Thanks!

I hope you enjoy this.

* * *

Next day, at six I found myself at Training ground 5 with the rest of my team.

"Alright team 5, today marks the day when we start off as a team. You three are good for academy students, but to become a proper genin you will have to go through a lot more training. We will start off with our training. Any questions?"

"Sensei, will we take any mission today?" Tsuba was excited at the prospect of taking up missions. We all were.

"Not until I deem you fit to take them."

What?

"Now, before you start whining, let me remind you that you three are fresh Genins. It has just been a day since you all have been actually considered as Genins. Do you really think that I would allow you to take up missions right away? Without any training?"

We all looked sheepishly at him.

"I want you three to warm up and give me fifty laps around the training ground."

We groaned as started off with our task. Even Shiro joined us. "He is a ninken he should have more stamina than you all"

We all were, with the exception of Shiro, panting by the time we finished our laps. The training ground was huge and we were (or at least I was) not used to running so much at a time. Although it did not take much time for me to recover. Sensei then sparred with all three of us. First we sparred individually then as a team. After lunch we discussed about our spars and how could we improve ourselves. Sensei informed us that he would be focusing on our taijutsu and team based attacks before moving on to weapons or anything else.

The rest of the days followed a similar pattern, our entire training schedule was focused on improving stamina, traps, attacking and defending as a team and as individuals and improving our accuracies with kunai and shuriken. We did not touch weapons or ninjutsu. I was not even allowed to use my Shadow Clones.

After about two months we took our first D rank, which was painting a fence. From then on we started taking around five D ranks a week. Our training shifted its focus from taijutsu to weapons, chakra control and poisons. It certainly could be a problem if my teammates were not immune to the poisons that I was using, they started off with some milder paralytics that were available locally and build up their immunity slowly. He got Tsuba started on swords, Akira on archery and me on Bo staff. For now, we could just pretend that we were good at using them.

Sensei also helped me out with seals. Currently, I could use different variation of explosive tags, storage seals, barrier seals and seals for suppressing, identifying and tracking chakra (which was extremely useful while hunting Tora and yes Tora did exist and she was definitely a beast; they should change the mission ranking to C rank for it). He even got me started on summoning seals, although I would have been happier if I could get my hands on notes for Hirashin.

We still focused a lot on team based strategies and we played this game, where sensei would give us a scenario and each of us had to come up with how things would go from bad to worse and how would we get around each of the issue.

We still did not start learning any ninjutsu other than the academy three. Although, we did learn a lot on breaking genjutsus and also we started incorporation my shadow clones in our exercises.

* * *

It took six months after we took our first D rank to get our first C rank. It was a courier mission. A merchant in Konoha had to deliver a package to someone in Tanzaku Gai and deliver the response back to the merchant. It was supposed to take a week. The pay was good enough and the only reason it was a C rank was because it involved going outside Konoha. We didn't even have to escort anyone on this trip.

"Team five, I want you all to pack your stuff and be at the gates by 0800 hrs tomorrow. Is that clear?"

"Yes sensei."

I handed off a couple of storage scrolls to Akira and Tsuba and went back home.

Okay, so this was going to be my first C rank and there was a possibility that things my go south. So after I packed everything I could (a tent, sleeping bag, ramen, a hundred of each variation of explosive tags, my sealing supplies, blank scrolls, ramen, notes on my latest work (comm tags and converting chakra to a particular affinity), shurikens, kunais, ramen, first aid kit, blank storage scrolls for storing more item if I needed it.) I created two clones and a simple summoning contract to check if my summoning thing worked well, which it did.

I then created a summoning contract with my blood on the summoner's end and created space for adding my teammates as the ones who would be summoned. I then left eight vials of my blood and sealed my clones into a timed storage scroll which would release the clones exactly one week starting tomorrow. The clones would summon my teammates and I unless I made some changes to the summoning scroll. In any case the clones would summon me first, so that if some changes were made I could inform them about it.

The first thing I did next morning was key in my teammates' chakra signature and blood to the summoning contract and checked if the contract worked. Once all of us were satisfied with it we took the package and headed out.

It took us a day and a half to reach the place and half a day to find out the person to whom we were delivering the package. Thankfully, there were no obstacles on our way to reach here. And based on how things had been going I felt like this C rank mission would stay C ranked.

It took another day to get the response from the merchant's contact over here.

"Alright kids, our mission is complete. Now all we have to do is go back home and hand in our reports. But we still have four days left. What do you guys want to do?" Sensei asked us once we got the response package (?) back.

"We can go back now." Akira suggested.

"Do we even have to go back? Naruto's clones will anyway summon us at the end of the week right? And I don't know about you all but this is the first time I have come to this place. It would be nice to check things out here." Tsuba replied

"Yeah, that does sound good." Plus, I wanted to check out that castle which was/ would be destroyed by Orochimaru, the wiki page suggested that it was a good tourist attraction.

"Okay, then I will let us guys roam around, but don't cause any trouble and make sur you're in the inn before it gets dark. Also, make sure you are all together."

Sensei left after that.

"Hey we can check this castle which is supposed to be quite famous over here." I suggested.

The castle was huge and nice. I wondered how did Orochimaru even destroy this nice piece of architecture. After visiting the castle, we headed to a restaurant for dinner.

* * *

This place was far more crowded than Konoha, although I liked the crowd here. It could be because of the way people looked at me. But people for some reason seemed generally friendly over here. At the restaurant, we started talking to this guy who was sitting next to us. He was a merchant from the capital city of Land of Fire.

"So you three are from ninjas from Konoha?" he asked us pointing to our headbands.

"Yes, we sort of finished our work earlier and had a bit of free time in our hands. This is like an impromptu vacation for us." Akira answered.

He laughed at that.

"I am Daichi from Kasai No Shuto."

"I am Akira, this are my friends Tsuba, Naruto and this one right here is Shiro. Daichi san are you a merchant?"

"Yes. I mainly deal with clothes and glasses."

"Glasses? What do you do with glasses?" Tsuba asked.

"I work with colored glasses. They are quite popular with people. Although the glass is hard to come by these days."

"Why? Is something wrong with glass making (?)" Akira prodded the man. The three of us had recently started learning on how to gather information with civilians and all of us were excited to implement what we learnt.

"Most of the glass comes from Suna and these days things are tense with them."

That seemed like a news for us. I knew that our relationship with Suna was strained, but I did not know it happened so earlier in the show.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, ever since their Kage died, our relationship has been strained, so it was not something new. But since the past few months they have become more stricter. Initially, at least we merchants had more freedom. In fact, they were very friendly with the merchants, probably in order to promote trade, but for the past few months they have become quite strict in their procedures and have started imposing a lot of taxes, especially for merchants from Hi no Kuni." He sighed "Anyway, why am I even troubling you kids with this stuff. It keeps happening all the time, we can't really do anything about it. Let me not spoil your vacation. And here take this-" He handed us three figurines made of glass "- as an appreciation for the work you, ninjas, do. Not many of us take time to thank you."

"Thank you Oji san" We were glad that he gave this to us for free, though I discretely checked it for seals or anything it might have.

* * *

Once we reached the inn we informed Hiro sensei about this. He told us not to worry too much about it as the relationship with Suna had always been quite tensed. He told us about how the Wind Daimyo started giving a lot of missions to Konoha instead of Suna which was causing these tensions. This visit with Daichi gave me an idea, which I might have probably come across in one of the various fics that I had read in my previous life. Once I got the permission from sensei, I sent a lot of my transformed clones throughout the city to just talk to people. After all Shadow Clone was made as a tool for spying.

The next day I just made notes on the different things that I got to know from my clones. Most of the information was just local gossip about the merchants, some about the gang that was causing trouble (not that we could do anything about it), about a lady who owed a lot of money in the casinos. There was some gossip about people who were kidnapped from Kumo, how things were bad in Kiri and something weird that was happening in Land of Rice Fields.

On the last day, we all worked on our reports. Because of all this extra work that we did, the three of us had to hand in two different reports – one for the mission and one for the info gathering session. Akira had to write one more report which was to be submitted as a team. It took a lot of time and energy to write these things but we all were done.

The day we were to be summoned back we gathered at the gates of the city and when it was time, all of us were summoned back to my apartment one by one.


End file.
